The nuclear forces complex on the Caithness coast near Thurso is being dismantled.
In the past, robots have been used to succeed in infected parts of the site.
The Dounreay operator said it runs with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear (Rain), a consortium of universities.
Led through the University of Manchester, they explore the use of robots in the Fuel Cycle Zone (FCA), which has the maximum number of infected portions of the site.
Dounreay said the maximum number of infected spaces was “usually also the maximum inaccessible”.
Rain’s scientists have tested before this year in the FCA labs of a small remotely controlled vehicle equipped with sensors, cameras and a manipulative “arm”.
In the past, a robot was used to demolish parts of a site related to the first operational reactor that succeeded in criticality in Scotland more than 60 years ago.
The Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR) achieved criticality, a nuclear reference to neutron balance in the system, in 1958.
A device described as a high-tech computer virus has also been used to investigate the state of a pipe that was once used for radioactive effluents.
The 100,000 euro caterpillar returned photographs of the system.